The last word
Public transport makes a real breakthrough at world summits
Following the recent G20 conference in Mexico, where public transport was specifically mentioned for the first time, Alain Flausch, secretary general of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), reaffirms his conviction that a continued commitment to public transport is crucial to achieving sustainable development in the 21st century.
transport at the G20 summit in Mexico came on the back of the Rio+20 summit where, despite mixed overall results, UITP’s strategy to double the world market share of public transport by 2025 (PTx2) was recognised as one of the “voluntary commitments.” This is good news for our strategy which aims to decouple the growth in urban mobility from its societal and environmental costs.
T
Indeed, the G20 declaration recognised this rapid
urbanisation challenge that we face. By 2025, the world’s urban population is expected to increase by 40% from 3.2 to 4.5 billion with a resulting 50% increase in daily urban trips. Mobility is a fundamental requirement - public transport not only alleviates congestion by linking employees to employers, but also helps to tackle pollution, because travelling by car emits 3.5 times more greenhouse gas than public transport. One of the other major challenges is urging governments to learn from the current economic crisis to accelerate the shift towards greener and more sustainable production and consumption patterns, which is slowly beginning to happen in some parts of the world, but not quickly enough.
The economic crisis has put enormous pressure on public purse strings so other funding solutions need to be explored. There are numerous solutions including PPPs, advertising, and new ticketing structures or alternative revenue sources such as employer contributions or congestion charging. Of course, in order to
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double the market share of public transport, capacity also needs to be substantially increased to provide an expected extra 2.5 billion journeys worldwide by 2025. Many new and innovative solutions will be required, such as network re-organisation, and automation of metro lines. Operators, authorities and industry have a responsibility to create a more service- orientated public transport model, which strikes the right balance between affordability, comfort and flexibility. Public transport also needs to be given a competitive advantage over the car to attract new users, which means segregated infrastructure, limited traffic and parking zones and a ban on polluting vehicles. These are obviously not easy challenges to tackle, although there is no shortage of positive examples being set all over the world. To do this, cities need to implement better demand management by positively influencing the factors which affect mobility behaviour; develop a more commercial
approach to match people’s changing lifestyle needs; create a favourable business and regulatory framework that allows public transport to thrive; and ensure that public transport policy is fully- integrated with other urban policies, such as land use and parking, as well as other modes of transport.
The PTx2 strategy aims to change mobility behaviour and habits, making people think twice about using their cars, although not opposing car ownership in itself. If the current trend of car use continues, our cities will grind to a halt by 2025 - many already have - and greenhouse gases will increase by 30%. A journey from home to work by car consumes 90 times more urban space than the same journey made by metro. Given current demographic growth and mobility patterns, particularly in developing countries, this is simply unsustainable.
In many parts of the world, car ownership is still seen as a sign of social and economic success. One of the most
HE small yet significant recognition of public
“Doubling the global market share of public transport is unquestionably a bold aim, but it is not unrealistic.” Alain Flausch
important things that needs to change is the perception of public transport, which, incidentally, is often faster than using a private car. The ownership of a private car does not in itself guarantee mobility: take Singapore or Munich where public transport has a high modal share, access to 500,000 jobs takes from 20-25 minutes on average. Compare that with Houston or Melbourne, where the car is the mode of choice, and journey times rise to 55-70 minutes. There is also a discrepancy between the perceived and the real cost of owning a car. For 90% of its life, a car is simply ‘stuck’ in a parking space, whilst the costs are high to both the owner through insurance,
maintenance, and parking, and to society through congestion, accidents, noise, and pollution. Doubling the global market
share of public transport is unquestionably a bold aim, but it is not unrealistic. In some cities, such as Vienna where public transport already has a 35% market share, doubling this would not be feasible, so they have set a target of 40% by 2025. However, in Dubai, where mobility demand is expected to quadruple by 2020, they aim to increase the market share of public transport from 6% currently to 30% by 2020, which is an enormous modal shift. It is exactly this kind of initiative that is needed to elevate the role of transport in climate change, support sustainable economic growth and ensure that our cities are pleasant places in which to live. IRJ
To learn more about the UITP’s PTx2 strategy, visit:
http://www.ptx2uitp.org/
IRJ August 2012
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